Maliciously designed to kill you.
It's banking on you to beat it out of spite. "Oh you just teleported chaingunners behind me after picking up this inconspicuous gun? Well now I'm ready next time, asshole!" It really wants to make you hate these demons with a burning passion. If Doom II was built any easier or laxer then these enemies wouldn't be much of a threat alone, and therefore less memorable. The level design accentuates the demons as scheming yet merciless. This isn't some honorable battle between warriors, this is a hunt for flesh. And there can only be one winner here.
More than many action games is Doom II a test on your memory, reactivity, and resource management. This game is straight up unfair, so you need to keep in mind what gun your currently holding before triggering the trap that killed you earlier. Demons have various levels of health, damage, and mobility; thus misusing and wasting your more powerful weapons will leave you vulnerable for when you really need that rocket launcher or B.F.G. against that Archvile. Sound cues are vital to knowing if a enemy has spotted you, or if a off-screen projectile is flying towards you. The player at least has the newly added super shotgun, though while a extremely powerful gun with good ammo efficiency, can be easy to over rely on. Definitely had times where the intervals between reloading the shotgun got me killed, when I should've attacked more from a distance with the chaingun or stunlocked with the plasma rifle.
But even with the generous usage of quicksaves, this game can get exhausting for a new player. Sometimes you get tired of being made a fool of yourself when the game teleports you into a tiny room with four imps on every side, which then proceed to tear you to shreds. Literally no way to know that was going to happen. The more bullshit people will encounter, the less willing they'll be able to continue with your game. Of course that isn't a universal rule, but there's a fine line between "Fck you, let's try that again!" and "Fck you, I quit!" For better or worse, games just don't do this kind of evil, unscrupulous design anymore.
Like Doom Eternal, I had to take breaks in the middle of levels. But unlike Eternal, it was because I couldn't be bothered at points to drudge through yet another elevator that takes me right into a horde of chaingunners that eat away at my health before I can even see where they are. It's funny how some of the earliest demons, the chaingunners, I find to be more annoying then even the Pain Elementals or Archviles.
Though with that in mind, playing Doom II showed me why this game has remained popular to this day. The enemies with their particular and variable roles, and the weapons with their satisfying designs and function, makes for near-infinite mod level packs with fresh feeling gameplay. Whether you want to have the player cleave through hordes of fodder demons with the B.F.G., or starve them for ammo as they have to whittle down a towering Cyberdemon, modding Doom II levels will live on well-passed any live service game that shuts down (six months after release).
Don't know if I played a good version of Doom II though. I'll be honest when I look up stuff for classic Doom, I get pretty intimidated by the number of ports and re-releases of the game, plus all the hard-core fans mentioning which ports are better then others. I played the standalone release from Steam on my Steam Deck, not sure what people in the community would call that port. I just took the path of least resistance to play the game, so hopefully that version won't make a Doom fan too upset at me. Did come across a few bugs, namely to do with a elevator not triggering and I had to reload my save to get it working again. Also I don't know if this is just a normal Doom thing, but sometimes it can feel pretty stingy when auto-aim will work if you're trying to hit a demon from a large elevation difference. Hard to get into a precise location to hit them when they can attack with their hitscans from wherever they want off-screen. This version of Doom 2 at least had that reticle to light up red if the next shot will hit a target, but it still doesn't change the fact how awkward "aiming" can be in this game.
And lastly, why did 'Into Sandy's City' only play in one level when it's easily the best song in the entire game?
It's banking on you to beat it out of spite. "Oh you just teleported chaingunners behind me after picking up this inconspicuous gun? Well now I'm ready next time, asshole!" It really wants to make you hate these demons with a burning passion. If Doom II was built any easier or laxer then these enemies wouldn't be much of a threat alone, and therefore less memorable. The level design accentuates the demons as scheming yet merciless. This isn't some honorable battle between warriors, this is a hunt for flesh. And there can only be one winner here.
More than many action games is Doom II a test on your memory, reactivity, and resource management. This game is straight up unfair, so you need to keep in mind what gun your currently holding before triggering the trap that killed you earlier. Demons have various levels of health, damage, and mobility; thus misusing and wasting your more powerful weapons will leave you vulnerable for when you really need that rocket launcher or B.F.G. against that Archvile. Sound cues are vital to knowing if a enemy has spotted you, or if a off-screen projectile is flying towards you. The player at least has the newly added super shotgun, though while a extremely powerful gun with good ammo efficiency, can be easy to over rely on. Definitely had times where the intervals between reloading the shotgun got me killed, when I should've attacked more from a distance with the chaingun or stunlocked with the plasma rifle.
But even with the generous usage of quicksaves, this game can get exhausting for a new player. Sometimes you get tired of being made a fool of yourself when the game teleports you into a tiny room with four imps on every side, which then proceed to tear you to shreds. Literally no way to know that was going to happen. The more bullshit people will encounter, the less willing they'll be able to continue with your game. Of course that isn't a universal rule, but there's a fine line between "Fck you, let's try that again!" and "Fck you, I quit!" For better or worse, games just don't do this kind of evil, unscrupulous design anymore.
Like Doom Eternal, I had to take breaks in the middle of levels. But unlike Eternal, it was because I couldn't be bothered at points to drudge through yet another elevator that takes me right into a horde of chaingunners that eat away at my health before I can even see where they are. It's funny how some of the earliest demons, the chaingunners, I find to be more annoying then even the Pain Elementals or Archviles.
Though with that in mind, playing Doom II showed me why this game has remained popular to this day. The enemies with their particular and variable roles, and the weapons with their satisfying designs and function, makes for near-infinite mod level packs with fresh feeling gameplay. Whether you want to have the player cleave through hordes of fodder demons with the B.F.G., or starve them for ammo as they have to whittle down a towering Cyberdemon, modding Doom II levels will live on well-passed any live service game that shuts down (six months after release).
Don't know if I played a good version of Doom II though. I'll be honest when I look up stuff for classic Doom, I get pretty intimidated by the number of ports and re-releases of the game, plus all the hard-core fans mentioning which ports are better then others. I played the standalone release from Steam on my Steam Deck, not sure what people in the community would call that port. I just took the path of least resistance to play the game, so hopefully that version won't make a Doom fan too upset at me. Did come across a few bugs, namely to do with a elevator not triggering and I had to reload my save to get it working again. Also I don't know if this is just a normal Doom thing, but sometimes it can feel pretty stingy when auto-aim will work if you're trying to hit a demon from a large elevation difference. Hard to get into a precise location to hit them when they can attack with their hitscans from wherever they want off-screen. This version of Doom 2 at least had that reticle to light up red if the next shot will hit a target, but it still doesn't change the fact how awkward "aiming" can be in this game.
And lastly, why did 'Into Sandy's City' only play in one level when it's easily the best song in the entire game?
6 Comments
Doom's Doom; I don't think you're going to easily come across any bad ports. Decino did a great analysis of the quirks around auto-aim (and every other Doom-related subject) if you're interested. Great review!!
The port you played is usually called the Doom Classic Unity version. It can play a majority of "limit-removing" custom WADs in addition to the original id Software releases. And that's a very good port for experiencing old-school Doom with some modern conveniences. I personally switch between the DSDA-Doom and GZDoom source ports for both vanilla and extended maps/mods, but it's cool that Bethesda maintains and expands on their official port even now.
@DeemonAndGames Funnily enough, I was watching a UltraKill dev stream where they described a certain enemy they made as "What if we made the chaingunner but people didn't hate it." This was before I played Doom II, and boy howdy do I understand now.
@cowboyjosh Actually Decino was partially the reason why I decided to play Doom II. I really liked all the nerdy data he went over when describing the weapons and enemies, plus the weapons themselves looked fun to use.
Another reason is actually @PasokonDeacon since as of late I've been curious on trying mutual's favorite games, so I've been looking at your profile's and seeing what peaks my curiosity. That, and Deemon's recent review of the game.
@cowboyjosh Actually Decino was partially the reason why I decided to play Doom II. I really liked all the nerdy data he went over when describing the weapons and enemies, plus the weapons themselves looked fun to use.
Another reason is actually @PasokonDeacon since as of late I've been curious on trying mutual's favorite games, so I've been looking at your profile's and seeing what peaks my curiosity. That, and Deemon's recent review of the game.
Ngl doom is my fav doom 2 song but the whole ost is pretty solid
@AlphaOne2 lol, I have been playing a bunch of the 'ol Doom mods lately, and getting behind on my reviews in the process. A friend of mine's been going through the official games (we've reached Plutonia!) and I'm starting to brush up on recording demos and making maps again. Maybe I could start a Backloggd Speedmapping Project (BSP) or something, get the handy oomfies into level design just cuz.
DeemonAndGames
1 month ago